Yard 56

About

Awards:
“WaveMaker Award,” 2023 by ULI Baltimore
“Best in Real Estate,” 2020 by Baltimore Business Journal.
 

GTA provided geotechnical engineering, environmental consulting, and construction observation and testing services for the 20-acre, award-winning, mixed-use redevelopment of the former PEMCO industrial manufacturing plant. The new development includes retail, office, and residential facilities. GTA worked to develop foundation and earthwork recommendations for structures supported in the native clayey soils, and an up to 40-foot-deep industrial landfill along the western portion of the property. Specific geotechnical design challenges have included stabilization of a 20-foot-high cut slope in clay, design of a pile-stabilized retaining wall, design of a paving section utilizing soil cement treated subgrades, design of on-site modular block retaining walls, backfilling of utility trenches with fine-grained soils, and selection of soil improvement options for buildings planned in the existing landfill. GTA worked with the project team to design a reinforced slope in an existing ravine to lose “excess” on-site marginal spoils, eliminating the need for costly off-site disposal of the environmentally impacted soil. Additional geotechnical evaluations included a site-specific seismic survey to provide a more favorable seismic site classification for design in the landfill area.

GTA prepared Phase I and II ESAs for the subject property prior to entering it into Maryland’s Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP). A Response Action Plan (RAP) was prepared and approved by the VCP and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and implementation of the RAP is ongoing. The RAP establishes a proposed remedy for impacted soil, soil vapor, and groundwater contamination within the site boundary in conjunction with the planned site development. GTA also designed vapor mitigation systems for the site buildings, removed numerous underground storage tanks, and oversaw the removal and proper disposal of petroleum-, lead-, and PCB-impacted soil and concrete. The property has received regulatory closure for the 1st phase of the development, and implementation of the RAP in the 2nd phase is ongoing and includes development over the existing landfill.

Additionally, GTA has provided soils testing, utility backfill testing, soil-cement operations, building pad construction, road construction, and has provided observations and testing for the construction of the stormwater management facilities. GTA provided COT services for the buildings in Phase 1 including footing observations, reinforcing steel observation, concrete testing, masonry observations, vapor mitigation system observations, structural steel observations, and asphalt testing.